Goliath II

A Walt Disney Cartoon.

Tiny GOLIATH II is a disgrace to the rest of the elephant herd - until he encounters a bullying mouse...

This two-reeler was based on a story by the celebrated children's author Bill Peet. Various elements of the animation will invariably remind viewers of DUMBO (1941) and the forthcoming JUNGLE BOOK (1967). The film is helped immeasurably by the narration of Sterling Holloway.

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by pictures & drawings. As a lad in Marceline, Missouri, he sketched farm animals on scraps of paper; later, as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War, he drew comic figures on the sides of his vehicle. Back in Kansas City, along with artist Ub Iwerks, Walt developed a primitive animation studio that provided animated commercials and tiny cartoons for the local movie theaters. Always the innovator, his ALICE IN CARTOONLAND series broke ground in placing a live figure in a cartoon universe. Business reversals sent Disney & Iwerks to Hollywood in 1923, where Walt's older brother Roy became his lifelong business manager & counselor. When a mildly successful series with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was snatched away by the distributor, the character of Mickey Mouse sprung into Walt's imagination, ensuring Disney's immortality. The happy arrival of sound technology made Mickey's screen debut, STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928), a tremendous audience success with its use of synchronized music. The SILLY SYMPHONIES soon appeared, and Walt's growing crew of marvelously talented animators were quickly conquering new territory with full color, illusions of depth and radical advancements in personality development, an arena in which Walt's genius was unbeatable. Mickey's feisty, naughty behavior had captured millions of fans, but he was soon to be joined by other animated companions: temperamental Donald Duck, intellectually-challenged Goofy and energetic Pluto. All this was in preparation for Walt's grandest dream - feature length animated films. Against a blizzard of doomsayers, Walt persevered and over the next decades delighted children of all ages with the adventures of Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi & Peter Pan. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that childlike simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.

This cartoon, nominated for an Oscar, continues Disney's tendency in the latter 1950s-early 1960s to do short animation that was longer than the typical 6-8 minute length that had been the norn in the 1930s and 1940s. Although not entirely fresh ground (Warner Brothers explored the same basic concept before), Disney gives this a warm and fuzzy feel and then leavens it with enough humor to make it work splendidly. Sterling Holloway's narration is splendid, as always. As with all too much of the Mouse's older material, this is out of print, but it runs on The Ink and Paint Club on occasion. Recommended.

The big "Goliath" can only thinly disguise his disappointment when his son is born and is barely knee high to a grasshopper. Luckily, little "Goliath" is the apple of his mother's eye, and she has faith in him! That faith is well tested, though, as the scrawny looking tiger "Raja" eyes himself a little snack! This titchy elephant is quite literally bite size, and almost every other hungry critter in the forest has an eye on him too! When the little one gets lost, mum goes mad but the others sense dinner... Everyone knows that the one thing a pachyderm is scared of is a mouse - and when one terrifies the bejesus out of his giant family, it's only little Goliath who stays to face the dangers - and an acrobatic combat ensues. It's not really very original, this - with shades of "Jungle Book" meets "Winnie the Pooh" and "Dumbo" threading through it, it has a certain familiarity. It's got a friendly enough narration from the instantly recognisable tones of Sterling Holloway and the score is very typically George Bruns so it's easy to watch, just probably as easy to forget, too. (PS - I don't think there's a film called "Goliath I")

Of course, Disney animation is always quite good. Good color. Well drawn characters. The problem here is the rather dull, repetitive story of the tiny elephant trying to make his way in herd of giants. Only his mother cares about him, but he constantly disobeys her. It just seemed like the same old stuff.

The notable thing about this short cartoon directed by Wolfgang "Woolie" Reitherman (who would go to direct many of the notable Disney movies of the 60's and 70's and was part of the "9 Old Men"), is that it features a few pieces of key animation from The Jungle Book several years before the film while *also* featuring some shots which are clearly taken from older Disney movies (I counted Dumbo and Peter Pan, though I'm sure there are bits from others I missed).

It may be that I notice such things after a lifetime of seeing these things, but I think even if you're only somewhat familiar with the animation it will come up as 'hey, wait a minute, that's Dumbo and his mom, isn't it?' All the same it's a cute short - not much more, but the story, about a tiny elephant who is looked on as a pain in the butt for the other larger elephants and gets into mishaps with a tiger (only to later save them all by, again the Dumbo connection, fighting a mouse that they adults are all scared of), is a charming and substantive story of standing up for yourself against odds even if you're smaller or weaker or whatnot.

It is slight, it is silly, and it feels like an early trial run for The Jungle Book long before Balloo and Bagheera and when Khan looked like a rag-doll version of a tiger. It's fine, it's just not anything highly memorable, aside from its cribbing of shots from other Disney movies (perhaps, no, surely, as a way of cutting corners costwise).